Priority: Create a versatile system with a small enough system footprint that it easily can be transported to different locations.

SystemNeeds: The system needs to encompass 240 channels, where each channel can be used for high or low-speed data acquisition and is software-configurable for accelerometer or strain gauge input as well as other voltage-excited transducers.

SystemSolution: Creating a system with easily reconfigurable software that allows the versatility to configure any input channel for high or low-speed voltages, strain gauges, accelerometers, or DC LVDTs.

System needs: The system consists of the 128 channels and 24-bit sigma-delta ADCs needed to monitor and store, in real-time, frequency domain and time domain data. In addition, an analog bandwidth of 40 KHz required a sampling speed of more than 100 KS/sec.

System solution: Creating an VXIbus system with high-precision DACs and fast, very precise and high-speed 24-bit sigma-delta ADCs. VXIbus was used to sustain the required bandwidth.